Art0003 – Beating The Odds

Entrepreneurs are always looked upon as HEROES. They are those who go against the odds and make it through. This is especially true, when the people around them are very against their ideas.

Entrepreneurs are not completely unafraid of failing, but they go on with their ideas anyway. It can be very frightening and overwhelming to take the first step, especially if it is something new. It may seem like a lot of work and that the chances of failing are high. ‘What if something goes wrong? What if clients are unhappy? What if I loose all my money? I will be ruined.’

Nobody would like to lose all the time and money that they have invested. Everybody wants to lead a comfortable life. Then why proceed with an unsure and risky project especially if you are afraid of failure.

Entrepreneurs understand that failure is part of the process of going further and that no matter what, the failure will not cripple them, but instead make them stronger and smarter by learning from it. They work to conquer the fear in order to progress. So first you have to come to terms with failure, understand that it is there to teach and not to harm. Then you have to look at your appetite; start small and work your way up. With less investment initially, you can test your business and if it does not work out, you will not lose much. Instead of opening a bakery first, test out your product by starting from home. The capacity may be small, but you will have room to expand, if it is a hit.

Even if the odds are stacked against them, entrepreneurs still march on with their ideas, especially the ones they feel passionate about. Now this is not done blindly; you do not just jump out of a plane without a parachute, do you?

There is a lot of due diligence done, a lot of studying and understanding of the business.

Entrepreneurs do take risks, but they cut that risk down as much as they can before they take the plunge. You should always lower your risk as much as possible. The more knowledgeable you are about what you do, the easier it will be to solve problems faster.

How to do this?

Research your business, market and industry thoroughly.

Understand your customer, competitors and suppliers well

Make your business plan (internal) as detailed as possible, cover as much detail as you can.

Be a devils advocate or get someone to be for your business. Cover as many loopholes and disadvantages as you can. And play forward all your strengths to their most.

After studying your business environments (both internal and external) and business plans thoroughly, you will be able to have a clearer picture on whether your idea and execution strategy will make it a viable and successful venture. This would give you more confidence in executing it and beating the odds.

That being said, sometimes overthinking may slow you down or stop you in your tracks. If you have to start immediately, the best thing would be to start on a smaller scale, so that your risk is less and you are able to learn while doing the actual work. It is better to make the attempt, fail and learn, then to not make the attempt at all.

Take the first step to overcoming your fears, participate in EntreCity’s Classroom activity today, where we breakdown our fears and learn to overcome them.

It is one thing to read and absorb, but to understand better there is a need to apply.Click EntreCity Classroom to join in today’s activity and apply what you have learnt.

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About Entrecity

The idea behind EntreCity is to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses. We want to achieve this by helping people build an entrepreneurial mindset and to arm them with the technical tools to start and grow businesses. Whether or not you are ready to start a business, EntreCity aims to help everyone to think with an entrepreneurial mindset.